Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-02-11
UNDER SENTENCE or DEA 7H

with action, intoxicated with noise. the
yels Of comrades, the rattle of musketry,
the whzz of mnies, whir of balls and clat-
ter Of shells. the cheers of victors. the rush
for position and desperate holding, the hu
man passion for spiteful revenge aud the
reused taste for blood and carnage innate
in the animal man, under fire in the frenzy
of fight, is no test of courage Many a
man stands there because he is afraid t,
run.
/ remember. in the battle of Port Repub
lie in the three-days fighting around Gross
Keys, down in tho valley of Virginia, IN
'62, our regiment, w. l.. Jackson's old
Thirty first Virginia. was one of three or.
dered 70 storm and take a battery of nine
pieces, supported by five regiments of in
fantry and some of the coolest, most accu
rate sharp-shooters we had met Bv some
miscarriage the order came only 10 our reg
iment, now decimated by fighting and forced
marching to PA men
But we crawled up through the Dat field
ON our bellies. rising to shoot dropping
again to load and advance. Aud ever,
time we rose some comrades dropped t.
rise no more. We neared the crest unit
we could almost look down the black. sui
phurOus threats Of those nine twelve-pound
ers that were belching grape and canister
into our very mouths
Five times had our coois fallen one
two, three, four, five of our tallest brave
fellows, one after another had raised the
regimental flag and fallen. They had been
picked off 10y the sharpshooters, one after
another; those gallant western Virginia
mountaineerS, as fast as IA colur-bearer fell
snatching up the flag and rising with it
The fifth had fallen. sergeant Jump.
ed from Company & tn raise the standard
Better let that -- thing alone. Bill. Oh
growled Lieut.. Cooper. Use both hands
with your bayonet next rise
Bill Cooper was PENNSYLVANIA. a,
brave man as crawled back with our lii
tie remnant Of IA that day. After we had
reached safe quarters and were living down
to rest in the wood he turned 10 me to ask
what were YOU looking up aud down
the line in there for, Billy Z"
Lieutenant, was the answer. ~ wa,
looking for Il chance to run
By -- 81 was | - grutfiy retorted the
quondam man Of valor: but -- if ever,
fellow in the regiment wasn't looking right
at me
Aye aye, it takes less courage to stand
than to run away from a battle
But did get a touch that tested me most
through the lines in the secret service. "
Never mind what my business. or how
was betrayed. and how | was gathered in.
Enough that they bagged me $50 miles in
side the enemy's lines and hustled me off u
prison at Fort McHenry in Baltimore har-
Dor, where was confronted with the charge
of being a spy. No matter that / had on
when captured my full uniform a. captain.
No matter that at my court martial trial
their own officer who captured me testified
that he did not take me rs spy, and that
there was no work for spy when he cap
tured me
No matter was guilty, and the SER
tence was read to me ITO be hanged as a
spy on the parade q ound of Fort McHenry
between the hours of ~ NJ. and p. NJ
Nov 3, 1863
In answer 10 my request that. if they
must kill me- for the sake of honor to give
me the death of soldier, they graniouslv
changed the paper to read, ITO be shot To
death with musketry on the parade ground,
etc.
Somehow, | suppose l did not fully com
prehend or adequately appreciate my situa-
ton, for did not feel then any more than
| do now that death was to be nv next
deal. Nor had | at all contemplated that
result all through the trial. Only the last
day before that sentence was read to me,
had been creating nerriment by asking
puzzling or irrelevant questions of the
ludge-adVocate' telling Jokes during the re
cesses OF the court, IN divers manners ere
atIng iuh To draw mirth for myself out of
mat barren rock military Justice. Only
the dhy before the president OF the court
martial the colonel OF the regiment, twelve
"i whose oiii'ers composed my ndludicators,
asked 10 talk little with me IN private. as
between man and man.
Captain sand he, Il greatly fear YOU
do not properly appreciate your present
situation.
Wen colonel | know Of no man more
laVorabiy situated To realize It, Why do
you say 50
Because sir, your HE Is at stake IN this
trial
Vel
We'll you II lie found guilty, most aSSur-
ehly, oil the charge.
ven;
nou IL be sentenced I" lie.
W en-
Ana your he hanged or shot And
mere you nave been spending the leisure
hours ol the court trying your life IN friv-
oious testing ana mirth. As a fellow-man
IL srleVes me 10 see you 50 carelesSly play
ing al so terrible DRINK as you stand ON.
Ooiohel, was the relay, Il thank you
Tor your interest. II we are national enc
mes you speak as man and soldier. But
let me say TINS (now cannot explain what
induced me To make the following foolish,
loraggart speech but 1t dubbed up and
was spoken colonel, You or ! may die
before nlght we do not know but in 50
Tar as the result of your courts finding is
concerned VIII be alive when you and
your twelve officers are dead and forgot
ten
lie left me IN disgust, and don't blame
him
But such was my feeling. did not feel
a. IN my bones, as the slang goes, that
death was 50 near
lhe colonel and the entire twelve COM
posing the court died before l was eXchang-
ga Shot 10 death IN one charge at Coal
h1arbor hVe To write the occurrence %
years after the conversation.
1t may or may not be true that when the
grim monster singles out his victim he sends
nm some way spiritual premonition that
he Is gong I" let ny from Death 5 qulver
the iatal dart' he that as II may, had no
premonition Of death.
but was sentenced TO death, that fully
comprehended when they marched me,
handcuhed, between two guards, with arms
at charge and bayonets fixed, back to
the prison anu instead OF TO my former
l%xl% cell barred and bolted me IN an un-
foreground, dark, damp dungeon, three feet
by ten, with tub occupying two feet of
that sparse space, significantly suggestive